Image:Covenant, 2014, Bombay Hook, Delaware
Exodus 34:14 (NKJV) 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God),
Exodus 34 is a covenant renewal chapter. The people of God had really pushed things to the limit. Moses' had to plead with God not to destroy them all but to rather remember that they were His people, His covenant people, and that for His own glory and truth He, God, ought to show mercy to them. Moses, in other words, did exactly what God raised him up to do and now, in Exodus 34, God not only renews His covenant with Israel but also so radiates Moses that Moses' face reflected the shining reality of God Himself.
Much in this chapter finds its NT counterpart and fulfillment on the Mount of Transfiguration. There Jesus, the prophet greater than Moses, outshines both Moses and Elijah. There God speaks and declares that this Man, Jesus, is His Son and that the people of God are to listen to Him. Moses is a foreshadowing of the Great Lawgiver Who came in the flesh and renewed our Covenant with God through the once offered sacrifice of His own Person.
So much to consider. How beautiful God's works are. How satisfying to contemplate. How solemnly important is His claim on our lives.
Notice in this chapter that God reaffirms that the people that He has created for Himself are a "mission minded people." They will not be allowed to bask in the reflected glory of Moses forever. They have been called, pardoned, redeemed and dedicated to a task. Before them, at the end of their journey lies a land that is to be theirs. This is their promised land... it is to be their home... it is to be the center of their life with God and they are to discover their joy and their destiny in it.
The only problem, which was no real problem at all, was that it was a percolating cesspool of evil. Pagans inhabited the land... but not just any old pagans... after all, Israel had just been pulled out of another pagan land, Egypt. No, this was the land of the "Amorite and the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite." (vs. 11). These tribes/nations had, in God's providence, been allowed to sink into hideous depravity for over 400 years. God had given them over to their sin just like He had given over the whole earth to its sin in the days of Moses, ... just like He had given over Sodom and Gomorrah to their sin in the day of Abraham. These people were living examples of what happens when God withdraws His restraining grace from the world of fallen sinners. As one theologian described these nations: "they were not only doing great evil, they loved doing it." This was the "problem" that stood in the path of Israel.
Two things were commanded of God's people with respect to these peoples. God's people were not to make any "covenant with the inhabitants of the land". God's people were to recognize and embrace their calling. There could be no "mixing" with these people. There was to be not syncretism in their physical or moral make up. God's people were to be God's people... period.
God made it very clear why. As the pressures of warfare mounted the desire for peace would work on the Israelite morale. They would begin to make excuses for what they saw. They would begin to think: "They're not so bad... we could settle the land a lot quicker if we just came to terms with them." God said "No!" You do that and you will desecrate my people. You will introduce the venomous slime of false doctrines into your teaching and the lure of pleasure will move you to first tolerate and then participate in their depraved ways. No. Make no excuses for them nor make any allowances for them. They must not be allowed to be part of your community... you are to make no covenant with them.
Second, God's people were to tear down all the places of idolatry and drive out all those who loved their idols from the land. God's people are called to warfare with the forces of demonic evil in the world and they are to take whatever steps God allows to overcome that evil.
We must be careful now to distinguish where these two aspects of God's covenant with His people still apply. I think it is absolutely clear that it applies first and foremost to the sphere of God's visible church. Within the Church of Jesus Christ there is and there must be a continual war with the pagan idolatry that keeps sneaking in the door. Far too many Christians have a syncretized religion. They are "Christian" in the Church and "Secular" in the world. These people bring the world's ways and ideas into Christ's body and they must be confronted and repudiated.
Today the Church of Jesus Christ is being infiltrated by pagan ideas of child sacrifice (abortion), sodomy (homosexuality), worldly ambition, political aspirations, etc. etc. etc. These things are clearly repudiated in God's word and yet they are darkening the doors of many congregations and denominations. Christian college students are under intense pressure to repudiate all that they have been taught about the world, life and morality.
There can be no doubt that God's people are to be mission minded today in a very similar fashion to that mind God wanted in the Israelites. Yes we are to teach and preach and proclaim the basic gospel message... but at the same time we are to pay attention to where the war is being fought and we have to get in the battle.
Christianity is not something that is just for the "spiritual" realm. It was in the days of Moses and in the day of Christ, a war for the whole person and the whole people. It is not just a matter of the heart and the mind being set on heavenly things... it is also a call to real life in a real world where great dangers and great depravity are rampant.
The Israelites had Moses with his shining face to lead them into their mission. We have the Shining Light of the Face of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God, at our head. He is greater than Moses and His mission is greater than just Palestine. His claim is over the entire world and it is our job to go with HIm in His conquest.
Comments